[iliri]

Springpaw
long-furred, oriental-shaped, gray-and-orange calico molly with blue eyes; torn right ear
purrks: herbal knowledge - tier 2 | the collector | mind reader | skip the steps[all perm. active; sts for battle training]

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Everything was a blur. Voices were growing numb; into a vast nothingness of white noise. Each of her five senses felt like they were giving out on her, growing weaker and weaker by every passing second. Her vision barely foretold the figures of her clan-mates crowding the high ranks, only setting her eyes on the sights of pools of crimson gushing out from Violetfreckle’s exposed throat and feeling her paws growing dampened by the gushing of scarlet that stained her fur. Her emotions felt toyed; almost as if they were being tugged upon by reckless heartstrings. Her heart grew hollow, but quickly rejoiced with life as her eyes finally regained focus on the present.

A sudden splash of scarlet streaked across her young eyes, the young latter’s youthful eyes turning wide as the unspeakable unforetold right in front of her. Her throat clenched and squeezed as words restrained her voice, unable to escape as fear quelled her stomach. The blood pooled the naturally porcelain-white snow, smearing it a deep strawberry red.

Her muscles clenched; her jaws quivering, a shade of helplessness slid itself up her spine and grasped itself onto her shoulders with its spindly fingers. Frightened, sapphire blue orbs watched as Bumblestar stumbled, her eyes suddenly lifeless, and then dropped dead. Almost as if some foreign force had come and gone to finish its job by mercilessly killing the leader with zero remorse. Silence had ticked by for a moment, her brain finally processing the inevitable situation that had foretold right in front of her as her own leader‘s—no, her own aunt’s blood began to pool the already-stained snow, covering it with a fresh layer of blood. Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock.

Realization grasped onto her rather quickly, her lips quivering at a futile attempt to try speaking but to no avail. Drizzlecloud’s attempt at being comforting brought her no remorse. The acrid stench of blood that had been lingering around her nostrils was already too much for the young molly to bear, attacking at her system without any hesitation. Her panic began to rise, her breaths growing shallow as her mind grew hazed. No, not hazed. Her thoughts were jumbled, tangled, unfiltered. She failed. Again. The death of another clan-mate felt pressured onto her shoulders. Guilt and regret flourished into her veins, her body finally regaining momentum after being ignorant to the hard traces of reality for so long. Her limbs grew weak as she felt as if each strangling emotion was bursting at the seams. Confusion. Hurt. Anger. Springpaw couldn’t make sense of her stumbling thoughts, but she found herself moving subconsciously towards the group, hesitance drawing within each step.

“B… B-Bumbles?” Her voice quivered, the single, pleading word expressing past her lips as sorrow overcame her frame. She didn’t know what to think. What to do, even. She just saw Bumblestar die from some unforeseen force, the horror from the scene alone only making her feel more hopeless than the last. The name Bumbles had been drawn towards her by instinct; feeling as if stating her full name would feel foreign and wrong on her tongue. Bumbles was a proper choice for now. At least, in her eyes it was. She looked… so lifeless. Gone. Something in her chest felt tight, like a vice squeezing her heart, stealing the precious air out of her lungs. She wanted to draw closer, to see if Bumbles was truly gone. “Bumbles… if you-”

Then the unspeakable happened. Her aunt finally stirred, the life redrawing back into her body like a phoenix rising from the ashes it created to rebirth itself. The same could be equally said for Violetfreckle, but the calico bore no attention towards that, only hawkishly observing the situation happening right in front of her. Throughout her entire life, Springpaw never witnessed anything as remarkable as a leader coming back alive after losing a life. It was regretful to think of such an extraordinary incident as something as highly as remarkable, when it should be worrisome. She didn’t know how many lives Bumbles held in store, but she didn’t want to impulsively ask out of curiosity. Bumbles was alive and well, and that was what she needed to draw her attention towards.

Words had clamped in her throat, pitifully falling as her brain pitifully scrambled for the right things to say. A part of her wanted to sob; another wanted to curse at the stars for their mockery for the living and treating lives like they were a game of chess. Her expression turned stoic, glassy sapphire eyes glancing up towards the sky. For once, the brittle sun was shining against the bleak clouds, and the snow brightened its rays tenfold. It may be a sign of hope, but Springpaw only felt her jaw clench against the heady feeling of betrayal sitting deep in her stomach. She was no delusional fool to believe their constant mockery. They may be her ancestors, but there wasn’t any way that she was going to say anything towards the bleeding burning skies above that’ll quench their desires.

Letting loose a sigh through gritted teeth, the calico molly finally focused her attention towards Bumbles, her emotions turning turmoil as her stomach quenched and churned with the restless tension that unfolded over her. “You’re… you’re alive… I thought…” she thought what, exactly? Did she think that she was going to be gone forever? Embarrassment at its finest, she suspected. She couldn’t focus on everything else at the moment, merely focusing on her leader for a brief moment before finally turning towards her mentor, noting the matching streaks crimson staining their naturally pale fur. Another wash off was going to be needed, she supposed.

@dino. @Omari @vellichor @/whoever else